


Haphephobia: Alternative

by Birdybirp



Series: Haphephobia [2]
Category: Ghost (Sweden Band)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Panic Attacks, Past Abuse, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Trauma, abuse mention
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:47:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25793863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Birdybirp/pseuds/Birdybirp
Summary: A retelling of my other fic, "Haphephobia: The Fear of Touch", from the perspective of other characters.
Relationships: Cardinal Copia/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Haphephobia [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1871212
Comments: 3
Kudos: 34





	Haphephobia: Alternative

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, everyone!
> 
> As the summary says, this is a spin off of my other fic, "Haphephobia: The Fear of Touch." If you haven't read it, this should still make sense. But I advise reading both for both perspectives! They should be linked as a series and easy to find. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!
> 
> \-- Birdy

Today was just not Copia’s day. 

From the moment he woke up, everything went wrong. His shower ran out of hot water three minutes after he got in, he spilled ink all over a stack of important documents, and now a rat had gotten out. 

He had gone back to his room to grab more paper, and the rats started shouting at him as soon as he was through the door. The sudden barrage of frantic whispers in his head made him jump out of his skin. When he recovered from the shock, he could comprehend what they were saying. Asmodeus had staged another jailbreak. 

“This is exactly what I needed today,” Copia sighed to himself, pinching the bridge of his nose. Imperator would have his head if he didn’t get his transcription done; but he’d shuddered to think what would happen if one of the stray feral cats got a hold of his pet. 

It wasn’t like Imperator could actually kill him, anyway. It’d be fine. 

Copia set off at a brisk pace, combing through the abbey for one tiny brown rat. Asmodeus’ fur was the exact color of most of the stone in the church, though, so it wouldn’t be an easy search. It was unfortunate that the one rat who was the most likely to break out when bored was also the one who blended into his environment. He’d have to keep his ears open. 

The added ‘perk’ of his contract was usually a nuisance. Hearing the thoughts of animals around him sometimes made it hard for him to think. But it came in handy when looking for a lost rat. 

Copia tried to look casual as he continued his search, but was getting more and more nervous with every passing second. There were a lot of cats on the grounds today. Most of them looked hungry. Having something happen to one of his oldest rats would be the cherry on top of the shit sundae that his day had been. He prayed that he was only being nihilistic. 

Just when his nerves had reached an all-time high, Copia felt something small grab onto the back of his cassock and climb up his leg. He stifled a yelp of surprise before reaching behind him and grabbing whatever had attached itself to his clothes. 

As expected, his hand wrapped around the wiggly body of one brown rat. Asmodeus looked scared. His ears pressed flat to his head and his eyes flitted around nervously. 

_ “Help!” _ A tiny voice came from the back of his mind. 

“After all the trouble you’ve caused, I’m not sure I should.” Copia spoke in a hushed voice to the rat. Many of the church members already thought he was stranger than most. None of them needed to notice him speaking with a rat. 

_ “Help! Keep away! Keep away!” _ The voice was insistent. 

“It’s not my problem if you bothered a cat again. If you had stayed in your cage, you wouldn’t have-” 

Several sharp stabs to the back of his calf cut him off mid-sentence.

Asmodeus and Copia made similar squeaks of terror. Out of reflex, Copia pulled his leg away from whatever had grazed him and kicked over a candelabra. The resulting clatter echoed through the hall, making Copia flush in embarrassment even though no one else was around to see. He made to pick up the fallen candles when there was another stabbing sensation in his leg. Jumping back, hands pressed to the wall, Copia looked down to see a kitten attached to his leg, kneading his paws into his cassock. 

_ “Play?” _ An infantile voice reached him. The tiny creature’s claws pricked through the material with every motion of its paws, scratching Copia as it looked up at him innocently. 

“No,” Copia said, wiggling his leg to get the kitten to let go. The thing held on tighter in protest, repeating  _ “Play?” _ once again. 

Before Copia could make another move, someone snatched the cat away. 

“Sir, I am so, so sorry!” 

The young girl held the kitten to her chest as it continued to reach out to Copia. It was repeating “play” in varying levels of frustration over and over. 

Copia realized how he must have looked, pressed into the wall to avoid contact with a tiny kitten. He tried to compose himself, clearing his throat, smoothing out his cassock, and squaring his shoulders. He knew that the girl was assessing him as he did so. 

She looked like she just rolled out of bed. She had a mess of dusty brown hair pulled up into a bun and was wearing a shirt and sweatpants at least two sizes too big for her. Her green eyes were sunken and tired looking, and she had a pale pallor that made the freckles on her face look dark by comparison. This person wasn’t a Sister of Sin. Had he seen her before? Did she come to a mass? It’s not like he looked anyone in the face as he gave sermons anyway, so he wouldn’t recognize half of his congregation, anyway.

He realized his attempt to determine if he knew her had left him staring. He pulled his eyes from her and looked just over her shoulder. It was a trick he had used for a long time to avoid the awkwardness of direct eye contact. He didn’t enjoy looking directly at strangers. It gave him a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach. He was also not fond of how he could always tell that someone was trying to pick which of his eyes to focus on. It was a reminder of how he looked and why his eyes were the way they were. 

Hundreds of years, and the memories still bothered him. 

“It’s... uh...” Copia cleared his throat, realizing they were standing in silence. “It’s quite alright. I’m just not very fond of cats.” Understatement. Cats sensed his affinity for rats and wanted to torment him for it. He’d never met a cat he had liked. 

“I’m sorry. He’s never done this before...” Copia fought the urge to scoff in disbelief. He didn’t want to be rude. It wasn’t this girl’s fault that he was in such a terrible mood.

The girl’s eyes shifted from Copia to his shoulder, and she gasped. Copia realized that Asmodeus had perched himself there in the scuffle. He prepared himself for her to scream over the gross rat and readied to make a hasty retreat. 

“Oh my God, was Tiberius chasing your rat?!”

Tiberius? 

As in Tiberius, second emperor of Rome, who may have ordered the crucifixion of Christ? 

What an awful name for a pet. 

“Yes, I believe he was.” He answered simply. 

“Did he hurt him?” Copia’s gaze shifted back to the girl, his face a mask of confusion. This wasn’t the reaction he usually got when someone encountered one of his rats. Quite the opposite. Especially with cat owners. 

“I don’t think so,” Copia muttered, looking down at the ground. His hands started fiddling with his fascia as he tried to remember if he saw any injuries on his pet. “Asmodeus is one of my faster rats. I don’t think a cat could catch him.”

_ “Yes, fast.” _ A smug agreement came from the rat on his shoulder. Not that she could hear it.

“This might sound weird,” the girl started and Copia braced himself for whatever she was about to say. “But… Can I pet him? Or hold him?”

Copia’s fidgeting hands stopped, and he stared at the girl. That wasn’t a request he got often. He looked from the girl, to the cat purring in her arms, and back again. 

_ “No,”  _ Asmodeus protested.

_ “Hush, you’ll be fine.” _ Copia pushed back. He held up his hand to the rat and Copia gave him a slight suggestion to make him move forward into his palm. It was a little rude to use his gift to force the rat into doing things. However, he wanted to see where this was going. 

Copia held the rat carefully and offered him to the girl. She pet him gently with two fingers, which was the right way to do it. Often people put their entire hand over a rat’s face and head and pet them too hard. She impressed him. Asmodeus was even relaxing in his hand. 

“Hey, little guy... Are you okay? I’m sorry about Tibby. He’s just a baby, he doesn’t know better.” the girl spoke to the rat and Copia blinked, bewildered. Sure,  _ he _ talked to his rats, but that was because they understood him. Even then, he only spoke to them in private. But here this girl was talking to his pet right in front of him. It was charming.

The girl looked at him and seemed to remember he was there. She flushed and looked away from him, shuffling her feet. 

“I—I’m sorry again. He got out. I live across the street and he just ran in here. Shit, I don’t even know if I’m even allowed in here—I am so, so, so sorry.” She spoke so quickly Copia could barely keep up. There was a long silence as Copia tried to think of the right response. 

“I should go.” She spoke first. “I’m sorry again, uh… F-father?” She flushed an even brighter red, before turning and walking away. 

Copia stared at her back as she left. He hadn’t been a priest in the clergy for almost 100 years. So she wasn’t a congregation member. She said that she lived across the street… 

“Copia.” 

He wasn’t sure what compelled him to speak, but his name was out of his mouth before he could stop himself. A sudden shyness struck him and he looked away before she turned around. 

“Huh...?” He didn’t look up at her, but knew he had to keep talking. 

“I am Cardinal Copia. You can come see Asmodeus another time if you would like.” He turned and headed in the opposite direction, wanting to remove himself from the interaction out of pure sheepishness.

“C-Copia. Yeah, all right… Thanks...” Copia heard her voice behind him. “Oh! I’m Evelyn!” she called after him. 

Evelyn. Another unusual name, derived from the biblical Eve. Not a common name. She didn’t seem like a common person, though. 

Whoever she was, she was the best thing that had happened on an otherwise awful day. 

**Author's Note:**

> Yell at me for making a spin off for a story that isn't finished yet @just-here-for-copia.tumblr.com.


End file.
